Constructor: Leslie Rogers
Relative difficulty: Easy (untimed)
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THEME: none
Word of the Day: RASH GUARD (1A: Skintight swimwear for a surfer) —
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Despite containing things I find moderately to very repulsive (billionaires, VEAL), and despite starting off kind of weakly in that NW corner, I ended up coming around on this one and liking it just fine. It's not that the NW is soooo bad. There were just two things that made it less than pleasurable for me, one of them my problem and the other one very much the puzzle's problem. *My* problem was not knowing RASH GUARD at all. In retrospect, I'm quite sure I've heard the term, and since I've worn skintight protective swimwear at the beach before, it's possible I've even had the term on my body before. But the term itself somehow sank in, and so getting that answer was, let's say, an adventure. Here's where the puzzle's problem kicks in—the fill up there is less than great. If I emerge from a NW corner and I've already had to deal with ANIMA and UNSNAG and REECE and ATTILA and ALEPH and INGA, let's just say I don't have super high hopes for how the rest of the grid is going to go. So heading out of the NW I was leery, but then POLAR BEAR PLUNGE was great (best thing in the grid, no question) and the rest of the puzzle ended up being perfectly solid and mostly clean. Infinitely more enjoyable than yesterday's puzzle (which I had the great pleasure of not-blogging—thank you, Rachel)
There weren't many times when I needed to UNSNAG myself—the puzzle was definitely on the easy side, with gimmes aplenty. At 7D: Fifth-century military leader (ATTILA) I had the two Ts and started writing in OTTO something something (this was truly the low point of the solve). I was super-suspicious of BOCA because I didn't think snowbirding in Mexico was *that* common ... turns out I got my BOCAs and my CABOs confused (BOCA Raton is of course in Florida) (53A: Where many snowbirds winter, for short). I knew a SCRIM was an *object* in the theater but I did not know it was the name of the fabric (3D: Fabric in theater curtains). I struggled a bit to figure out the ambiguous 26D: Pages, e.g. (AIDES). I tried to read the Game of Thrones novels and gave up and tried to watch the show and gave up so GOT clues will forever remain a mystery to me. There's got to be better ways to clue ALLEN, but no matter, I figure it out quickly from crosses. I just learned that Alfie ALLEN is the younger brother of singer Lily ALLEN, who wrote a song about him. A song called "Alfie." It is ... well, here, see for yourself:
I knew very well what "eschatology" meant but still, cluing END as an "event" feels very very much like a stretch (40A: Event studied in eschatology, with "the"). "End times,""End of the world,""End days," etc. those are all correct. When you call The END an "event" ... that's just unhelpful. It's a term from theology, and ought to have been more clearly clued as such. But, again, good work overall, I think. Solid, easy, relatively breezy Friday.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Easy (untimed)
Word of the Day: RASH GUARD (1A: Skintight swimwear for a surfer) —
A rash guard, also known as rash vest or rashie, is an athletic shirt made of spandex and nylon or polyester. The name rash guard reflects the fact that the shirt protects the wearer against rashescaused by abrasion, or by sunburn from extended exposure to the sun. These shirts can be worn by themselves, or under a wetsuit. A rash guard by itself is used for light coverage in warm to extreme summer temperatures for several watersports including surfing, canoe polo, water survival training, scuba diving, snorkeling, freediving, wakeboarding, bodysurfing, bodyboarding, windsurfing, kitesurfing, kayaking, stand up paddle surfing, or swimming. There are also lower body rash guards, which are similar to compression shorts to be worn under the surfers' boardshorts, but more specialized for surfers. (wikipedia)
• • •
There weren't many times when I needed to UNSNAG myself—the puzzle was definitely on the easy side, with gimmes aplenty. At 7D: Fifth-century military leader (ATTILA) I had the two Ts and started writing in OTTO something something (this was truly the low point of the solve). I was super-suspicious of BOCA because I didn't think snowbirding in Mexico was *that* common ... turns out I got my BOCAs and my CABOs confused (BOCA Raton is of course in Florida) (53A: Where many snowbirds winter, for short). I knew a SCRIM was an *object* in the theater but I did not know it was the name of the fabric (3D: Fabric in theater curtains). I struggled a bit to figure out the ambiguous 26D: Pages, e.g. (AIDES). I tried to read the Game of Thrones novels and gave up and tried to watch the show and gave up so GOT clues will forever remain a mystery to me. There's got to be better ways to clue ALLEN, but no matter, I figure it out quickly from crosses. I just learned that Alfie ALLEN is the younger brother of singer Lily ALLEN, who wrote a song about him. A song called "Alfie." It is ... well, here, see for yourself:
I knew very well what "eschatology" meant but still, cluing END as an "event" feels very very much like a stretch (40A: Event studied in eschatology, with "the"). "End times,""End of the world,""End days," etc. those are all correct. When you call The END an "event" ... that's just unhelpful. It's a term from theology, and ought to have been more clearly clued as such. But, again, good work overall, I think. Solid, easy, relatively breezy Friday.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]